Changes in Dahab?

1. Still pretty much the same. The hotel / restaurant "mile" stretches further south now and the promenade is paved all the way down to the lagoon. If you move away from the water front to one of the many local cafés, I'm sure you will find someone to play backgammon with you.

2. Depends on the direction you walk. Going south along the water, it will be quite difficult to come to the open spaces for quite some time past the lagoon. North of the lighthouse it still gets quiet very quickly, same as if you walk inland.

3. Still the same, although most dive shops now quote in € rather than $. At budget places like Penguin, a normal dive is about €17.

4. Matter of taste, has alway been and still is, as far as I am concerned. Canyon and Blue Hole are both getting swamped by day-trippers from Sharm, so unless you manage to find a time when nobody else goes, it's extremely busy.

5. Still similar. I just paid € for a single room with fan and private bath, including breakfast.

6. There is a bit more choice now from local and semi-local restaurants on the main street. Cheaper and often just as good or better than the beach front restaurants. There is also a Thai restaurant and a couple of "real" Italian places.

7. Same.

So all in all, same same but (slightly) different. I think the biggest changes happened some time around 2003 (I think) when they paved the water front promenade and all the main "tourist" streets.

Super, thanks! Just what I needed to know!

I've been coming to Dahab since 2000, pretty much every year, and while there have been very obvious changes (back then nothing was paved), it has still managed to retain its atmophere, which makes it so different from Sharm.

There are a lot more big resorts now than there used to be, but most of them are down at or past the lagoon, so they don't really bother me. There are also positive changes, like it's cleaner than it used to be and there are several ATMs. I think the only thing I find really annoying are the bus loads of day-trippers from Sharm, both in town and at the "famous" dive sites. The oney place you probably won't recognise (until you get under water that is) is the Blue Hole area - very very busy, lots of restaurants, tons of cars etc. It has completely lost this feeling of remoteness it used to have.

Dahab sounds positively awesome. How is it in the May to June (July?) months?

I was also wondering how Marsa Alam compares to Dahab, as far as the social environment and vibe; prices for diving, lodging, and food, etc. Haven't found a whole heck of a lot of info on it so far...

Cheers.

May - July: hot, but not unbearably so, as it is usually windy in Dahab.

I have only been to MA once a few years ago, and while I enjoyed the diving and actually had a good time at one of the so-called dive camps, the social side is nothing like Dahab. You are more or less confined to your dive camp or resort, as there isn't much else, so it all depends on the people you meet there or go there with. I actually ended up spending more time with the local dive staff than with other tourists, most of whom were travelling in groups and came across as rather cliquey (sp?).

Diving is more expensive if you only want to do a couple or three dives a day and need to rent equipment, about the same if you have all your own gear and really take advantage of the unlimited house-reef diving that most places offer. Accomodation is also more expensive, even if you stay in one of the tents on the beach (if they still exist).

All in all, I would consider MA or a live-aboard if all I wanted was dive AND if I brought my own company, but Dahab for anything else, especially when going alone.